Presenting Our Findings

As a result of discussions at the June 6th meeting, it was decided to enlist the services of Mike Dilley to develop a formal, Power Point presentation which introduces the Mission, Vision and Objectives of the Sno Valley Aquatic Center Interest Group. The presentation will also include research on the health and safely issues that are at the heart of our proposal. Mike will show examples of a various, efficient and successful facility designs, and talk about the importance of proven, revenue-generating programming. The results of our survey will be presented as well.

Our purpose in developing this presentation is so that several of us will be able to start addressing leaders in government and business, in the towns of Duvall and Carnation and Fall city, in a series of meetings starting in October. It is crucial that the leadership in these communities take the initiative and start the wheels turning to make our Vision a reality. A facility of this size will need the support and cooperation of the leadership of the entire valley if it is to become a reality and operate successfully. To demonstrate how communities leaders might go forward, Mike Dilley will include examples of successful aquatic facility collaborations between government entities and community non-profit groups. There are examples nation-wide, but also several here in Washington.

Aquatic Center Interest Group members will be notified of the date, time and location of the presentations as we are able to schedule them. We are currently on the agenda to speak to the Duvall Rotary Club in October, and would like to also address the Duvall City Council, the Carnation City Council and the Carnation business community. We will also be contacting community leaders in Fall City for an opportunity to discuss this initiative.

We are very encouraged as we continue to hear great enthusiasm and strong statements of support at every turn.

Meeting Minutes 02.08.07

Attendees: Becky Johnson, Maura Van Ness, Rose Hollis, Peggy Loomis, Pam Bowling, Kim Lisk, Larry Rhule, Lin McBride, Carroll Whipple, Dawn Saunders

We started with introductions and individual visions for the project:

Rose Hollis stated she is new to the community and finds this a good community project to work on.

Maura Van Ness has been inspired by doing water therapy and wants to bring this to the valley.

Kim Lisk worked diligently on a past community pool facility project known as the Eastman Rush-Foundation and then Valley Recreation Association Board and currently teaches private swimming lessons in her own backyard pool. She would like to see a pool in the valley and recognizes the challenges of not enough community participation.

Pam Bowling teaches water aerobics and would like to see a local pool for the needs of our community.

Lin McBride recognizes the need for a community gathering place and sees this as an opportunity to fill that need.

Larry Rhule (director of the Si View municipal parks commercial pools) is very knowledgeable about pools and has a lot of information to offer.

Peg Loomis is also interested in seeing this project as an opportunity to create a community gathering place.

Rose gave a summary review of past meetings:

Maura and Rose gave a summary of actions they have taken since the last
meeting:
Official Interim Name: Snoqualmie Valley Aquatic Center Interest Group
E-mail address SnoValleyAquatics@cablespeed.com,
P.O. Box 866 Duvall, WA,

Kathryn Thompson has volunteered to design and set up the website which is underway:
http://www.snoqualmievalleyaquatic.org (under construction)

There was a short discussion about a feasibility study done in the late ‘90s. There apparently was one done which had negative results, but much has changed including the major change of a sewer system in Carnation, and a population boom all over the valley. Another feasibility study for a pool facility is now necessary for needs assessment and community interest.

Site possibilities
Maura and Rose had a meeting with Chuck McWilliams, V.P. of Lake Washington Vo-tech. A new campus is schedule to be built east of Safeway in about 5 years. He suggested talking with the developer CAM WEST, who will be donating the land for the college. Perhaps the developer would be open to including a pool site in the area of the housing development which may go up before the college is built.

Thrive Fitness is planning to build a new facility in the area along Hwy 203 just south of Copper Hill. Jeff Wolf, one of the owners and a member of the Duvall Planning Commission, is willing to explore the possibility of sharing/selling a piece of their property for an Aquatic Center.

The school district is planning to build a new Jr. High. This site may be worth looking into.

The King County Library is planning a new building for Duvall and is looking for partner to share a site.

More research must be done to determine how large a site will be needed for an Aquatic Center. The group will continue to explore all possibilities for site location.

Facility Research
Maura and Rose had a meeting with Michael Dilley who is a planning director for the Red Cross and has many years of professional experience working for Aquatic facilities Operations/Facility Management as well as Administrative/Program Management. He was able to offer many suggestions on how to design a facility that would be flexible enough to accommodate diverse aquatic programs, from competitive swimming to leisure time family activities. He was adamant that the traditional “rectangular pool” would not be self supporting in the long or the short run because of the programming limitations of that design. He offered a very interesting alternate design that has proven successful: A pool with a “Zero Entry”, fan shaped area at one end, with a deep water section at the other end for lap swimming lanes, aerobics classes, and even a slide. Successful facilities also have a second, much warmer, therapy pool with wheel chair access, and even a third small, very shallow, splash pool for toddlers. He was also very knowledgeable about recent innovations in pool design for energy efficient water filtration and heating systems, and air exchange (humidity control). He also explained how the Red Cross is able to provide training in water safety programs and soon may also be able to offer training for pool operations management.

Michael has a private consulting firm and would be willing (for a fee) to do a presentation to further demonstrate and explain of the above pool design strategies to a large group.

Avenues for Support
Lin brought up the idea of contacting Cathy Lambert (King County Council representative). Lin stated that she would e-mail her.

Maura and Rose met with Sharon Simas, Chairperson for SPLASH (swimming pools for leisure active sports and health). Their role in our area is described as: to encourage Eastside pools. According to Maura, they are willing to umbrella us in (501C3 status) so we could begin using a non-profit status.

The idea was raised that finding groups to use the pool on off hours would be helpful, i.e.: Kayakers are willing to rent pools to practice during non peak, late night hours. Competitive swim teams in the area may also be interested in using the pool for workouts during non-peak hours.

Eastman Rush Endowment Update
Kim Lisk recovered boxes of files from the church. Maura condensed this material to pertinent information. There have been conversations with a lawyer (Bill Holloway). Evidently, the foundation hired a consultant to develop a proposal (Don Cary), and the feeling was that the money spent on the proposal was mismanaged. There was over $100,000 raised; most was spent on the proposal. When the VRA was dissolved, a disputed amount ($15,000 to $22,000) was donated to the YMCA, and the Eastman Rush Endowment Fund was created. Maura and Rose discussed their interactions with Peter Morris (the group VP for Seattle Area YMCAs). The interest earnings on this money is to be used for partial scholarships for Snoqualmie Valley swimmers. The people who have attempted to use this money for scholarships have apparently been unsuccessful. Prior to the meeting, a discussion occurred about the Eastman Rush funds. The question came up: Why can’t the Eastman Rush scholarship money be used for lessons at the 2 local pools which are giving public lessons?

Maura and Rose plan to hear further next week from Peter Morris in an effort to track down the details. A conversation ensued about the importance of getting this information clear and concise before we present it to the public. It was agreed that continued efforts would be made to clarify the process for applying for swimming lesson scholarships, and if possible to obtain documentation that tracks the history of the creation of the Eastman Rush Endowment and an accounting of the use of those funds by valley residents.
Survey

Maura suggested that the next meeting could focus on creating a survey.

It was suggested that order of projects should be:
phone survey
more organized written survey
collate data
create a report/proposal

Rose stated that she would reach some those who expressed interest at the last meeting in helping with the survey.

It was suggested that the phone survey would be more organized if everyone called from one place. The Coldwell Banker Bain Real Estate office has allowed people to use their phones for calling in the past and would possibly be an option.

Misc
We need people to get involved and sign to work as committees: this was emphasized by Rose and Larry.

Larry suggested that when we get the point that we are ready to do fundraising, it would be helpful to approach the really wealthy people in the area to solicit donations.

At some point it would be a good idea to have do a press release and get a booth at the Carnation 4th of July event and Duvall Days.

Larry said it would be beneficial to reach out to local private swim teams (which are very well-funded organizations.) Wave Aquatics was mentioned. This apparently involves apx. 300 students. Larry stated that they have difficulty getting enough water time.

Carroll said she will submit a letter to the editor in the River Current about the Interest group and importance of swim instruction for valley residents.

A small donation for room use was collected.

Meeting Minutes 01.09.07

In spite of bad weather, the Jan 9th meeting was attended by 15 people at the Moonray Espresso and was a productive start at discussing needs and organizing focus.

Maura Van Ness and Rose Hollis gave a quick overview for newcomers, reviewing the Vision that is evolving for building an Aquatic Center for Snoqualmie Valley residents.

The Agenda for the meeting included discussion of several components of putting together a comprehensive proposal: Marketing Research, Facility Design, Cost Analysis of Construction, and Cost Analysis of Operations. Before long the group agreed that the most important thing to do in the next few weeks and months was to define “who we are”, and to develop a strategy for doing Market Research.

It was decided that for the short term, we would simply identify ourselves as the Sno Valley Aquatic Center Interest Group- with no board titles or committee chairs. An email address and website should be set up as soon as possible. These first steps would set the stage for proceeding with a market research project. Some felt a telephone survey would be the best next step. If that effort provides an indication of strong community interest, we could advance to a written survey, to be distributed in several ways, including newspaper insert, a website link, and good old fashioned face to face contact – handing out forms outside of Ixtapa or the Safeway and QFC.

A particular issue that continues to creep into the conversation has to do with the former Eastman-Rush Foundation - an organization that attempted during the 90’s to accomplish much the same thing as this group, but without success. Many valley residents contributed money to that effort and there are questions about how those funds were spent and what was done with the remaining funds when the project was abandoned. Though some people were able to respond, there are conflicting versions of answers to those questions. The group felt that the Eastman-Rush Foundation issue could become an obstacle to renewing the project unless we could provide a concise and accurate response. Maura Van Ness made a commitment to do more research to find answers to these questions before the next meeting.

The group the spent some time suggesting survey questions to interact with the community by phone and or media. Rose Hollis agreed to compile a Draft version and distribute it to everyone for comments and suggestions.
Maura and Carroll Whipple made arrangements to do facilities research a in the next few weeks and interview pool directors.

The date was set for the next meeting – Feb. 8th – location to be determined and announced at a later date.

Meeting Minutes 12.12.06

Our first aquatic center meeting December 12th went well. It was the first effort at group organizing. We discussed the vision of a community aquatic center, possible sites, possible collaborations, and approaches for support, pool tours, research groups and geo-thermal technology. Will Ibershof, Duvall’s mayor was present and Gerard Maloney, a geothermal expert. Also Jeff Wolf from THRIVE FITNESS and Carol Whipple, a long time valley swim trainer, Scott Lynch from Valley Chiropractic, Peggy Loomis, social worker and long-time community supporter as well as Rose Hollis, business woman and several other community residents.

Maura Van Ness shared a presentation developed by Sharon Simas, the president of SPLASH (Swimming Pools for Leisure, Active Sports and Health). SPLASH is a non-profit group that has been organized with the goal of doing something about the deficit of Eastside swimming polls suitable for quality competitive swimming and other aquatic sports. Sharon has provided much insight and encouragement. There are many great ideas and can-do incentives.

Mayor Ibershof indicated that the City of Duvall would be interested in seeing a proposal as it takes shape. He could not specifically suggest a piece of property for the facility, but recommended that the city planning commission be contacted. Several ideas for a location were discussed, including a joint effort with Lake Washington Vo Tech, which plans to build a new community college here in Duvall within the next 2 years. Someone (Jeff Wolf?) offered to get the name of the LWVT person in charge of that project so a meeting and discussion could be initiated.

Gerard Maloney described the geothermal design for heating and cooling swimming facilities. He has successfully installed these designs for residential use and is pleased with the energy efficiency he has seen. Geothermal design pools operating costs are less than half the cost of traditional systems. He agreed to research and find the name of a contractor who has installed such a system for a larger, public-use facility.

Jeff Wolf indicated that Thrive Fitness club is planning to expand in about two years. He says they are looking at property which could accommodate a pool as well. He doesn’t want to “own” the pool but is willing to collaborate and/or manage.

Maura Van Ness and Carol Wipple agreed to head up a group to tour area aquatic facilities and bring back various plans for comparison. However the site visits will probably not begin until after the holidays, after the next meeting.

Rose Hollis suggested starting a list of possible Stakeholders (Groups or individuals who would derive benefit from such a facility), and a separate list of potential investors or collaborators. Some suggestions were made for each list, and Rose agreed to bring these two lists to the next meeting for discussion and additions.

Those in attendance agreed to meet again Jan 9th, and were asked to invite others who might be interested in a having a state of the art, environmentally friendly, multi-use aquatic center located in the Snoqualmie Valley. Maura agreed to reserve a location and send a reminder email to everyone.